W4 - Respond to two

Respond to at two (2) of colleagues' postings listed below in the following ways:

Respond to at least two (2) of your colleagues' postings in one or more of the following ways:

· Share an insight about what you learned from having read your colleagues’ postings about his or her experiences with co-creative relationships and discuss how and why your colleague’s posting resonated with you professionally and personally.

· Seek additional clarity or ask your colleague a question, with accompanying context, which will help your colleague to think more critically, or consider related strategies, to promote co-creative relationships within organizations.

· Offer another example, from your experience or observation, which validates or differs from what your colleague discussed related to co-creative relationships.

· Offer specific suggestions that will help your colleague build upon his or her leadership skills within an organizational culture.

· Offer further assessment from having read your colleague’s post that could impact a leader’s effectiveness within an organizational culture.

· Share how something your colleague discussed changed the way you consider your own leadership qualities.

· No plagiarism

· APA citing

Bottom of Form

1st Colleagues – Natasha MillsTop of Form

Discussion 1 - Week 4

Top of Form

According to (Joseph, 2016), leaders play a significant role in promoting organizational performance and optimality. Leaders influence their followers’ commitment, trust, and effectiveness in job performance, hence success. Healthy exchanges between the leader and followers enhance high-quality relationships that promote efficiency in job performance through employee satisfaction, loyalty, trust, and commitment. Therefore, leader-follower relationships are essential for improved performance and ultimate success. The paper describes a scenario where leader/follower roles were exchanged under various circumstances. A description of the situation, outcome, effects on organizational culture, and overall impact on leadership effectiveness are outlined in the paper.

Leaders play a fundamental role in shaping organizational culture and success by motivating, training, and guiding followers towards attaining set goals and targets. Followers assume that the role of the leader is quite simple, leading. In fact, from experience, followership is relatively straightforward than leading. I can recall this from my previous job in a project management team. The team leader, who was the supervisor and manager, was very committed to leading the team. The leader used transformational leadership to mentor, train, and improve his leadership style. Resultantly, after a series of training and mentorship, he randomly chose a follower to lead the team for a given period.

I lead the team through the planning phase of the project. The leader took over the back seat and followed my guidelines. Although the shift in roles was structural and planned, the task was quite engaging. I undertook all the managerial duties while the leader acted as a follower. I developed plans, directed my followers, and ensured an efficient supply of the required resources. For a moment, it felt nice to lead, especially when the tasks were executable and in my areas of expertise. On the other hand, the experience was unpleasant, particularly when faced with difficult and complex situations. According to my leader, the shift in roles was not only a form of delegation. In fact, he cited that it was part of his leadership goal to nurture leaders and motivate his followers. Thus, he referred to his type of leadership as the people development process, where followers are motivated to lead.

According to (Joseph, 2016), leaders create quality leader-follower relationships governed by trust, loyalty, and commitment, informing organizational success. This implies that empowered followers exhibit high levels of commitment and efficiency. Organizational success is also evidenced by the availability of leaders and followers to collaborate and develop shared relationships, where work-related issues and problems are solved (Joseph, 2016). The outcomes of the shift in roles impacted the organizational culture. For example, the leader understood the need to nurture, mentor, and train his followers in various aspects, informing performance effectiveness. Resultantly, the overall organizational culture shifted positively. For example, as a follower, I understood the technicality that leaders encounter, influencing my loyalty, trust, respect, and commitment to the leaders and organization. In turn, this informs quality leader-follower relationships, promoting performance and success.

A study by Notgrass (2014) reveals that the relationship between leaders and their followers influences the nature of interactions and type of leadership style adopted to lead such and other groups. This is a practical observation, as leaders understand their followers and adopt effective strategies to manage this resource. The shift in organizational roles is pivotal in informing organizational culture. For instance, a leader-follower relationship scan identifies issues, strengths, and weaknesses of the leadership, informing change in the organizational culture, hence efficiency.

Van Vugt t al. (2008) defined situational leadership and leader-follower relations as critically important facets in shaping organizational success. As a leader, I will pioneer developing such relations to foster trust, loyalty, followers’ commitment, and overall organizational success. Second, I will use this tool to promote the availability and shared relationships to improve leadership styles and solve leader-follower relationships to mitigate imminent organizational issues.

Joseph, T. (2016). Developing the leader-follower relationship: Perceptions of leaders and followers. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 13(1), 132.

Notgrass, D. (2014). The relationship between followers’ perceived quality of relationship and preferred leadership style. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 

Van Vugt, M., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2008). Leadership, followership, and evolution: some lessons from the past. American Psychologist, 63(3), 182.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

2nd Colleagues – Ryan SharrattTop of Form

Discussion 1 - Week 4

Top of Form

In the emergency response world leadership roles change, shift, invert and rarely remain consistent. In nearly all responses leaders arrive onsite only to be relieved from a higher command staff or a subject matter expert. In this changing leadership-followership role there is rarely transitional issues due to the adherent risks involved in scene stabilization or remedial efforts. Scene stabilization requires rapid though, adaptation to a quickly changing environment and some level of advanced knowledge in the response efforts. Due to the knowledge required in the vast space of Hazardous Materials, leaders and followers are fluidly interchangeable based upon the skill sets needed in each scenario. However, to get an employee to this point, it takes a great deal of time and energy from the leadership team. Joseph (2016) illustrates leaders play a significant role in the way their followers devote their time, efforts, and commitment to, first of all, their job and secondly, how they extend their support to achieving organizational objectives (Joseph, 2016 p.132).

One of the struggles is building adaptable employees that can pivot between leadership and followership. As leadership and followership can be taught, to those willing, understanding the situation only comes with time. Understanding a situation is also an employee’s ability to perceive the scenario. Notgrass (2014) describes perception as a cognitive process used to interpret and understanding surroundings (Notgrass, 2014 p. 611). Although many people learn over time, some hazard types need immediate, exact attention, which govern who can lead and who needs to follow.

When the wrong leader steps in for a hazard, this is a true life or death situation. Communication and checking egos for limitations is critical to ensure scene stability and ensure employee safety. This is achieved by the non-emergency culture and enhancement of the leader-follower transparent relationship. As the results of Joseph (2016) illustrate, leaders and followers value working toward goals and objectives, a critical partnership between leader and follower and an engaging two-way communication exchange (Joseph, 2016 p. 137).

References

Joseph, T. (2016). Developing the leader-follower relationship: Perceptions of leaders and followers. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 13(1), 132-144. Retrieved from  https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fdeveloping-leader-follower-relationship%2Fdocview%2F1791040214%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D14872

 

Notgrass, D.  (2014), "The relationship between followers’ perceived quality of relationship and preferred leadership style",  Leadership & Organization Development Journal , Vol. 35 No. 7, pp. 605-621.  https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1108/LODJ-08-2012-0096

 

Bottom of Form